1944 Balvano train disaster, it was the deadliest railway accident in Italian history and one of the worst railway disasters ever.
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The Maurienne Derailment – Between 800 & 1,000 DeathsThe single worst railway disaster in history, the Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne incident took place the same year as the previous disaster on this list.
Accident numbers on Italy's rail network have fluctuated over the past five years, with the lowest number of accidents – just under 80 – occurring in 2019. Accident numbers had peaked the previous year, reaching 2019 in 2018, the same level as in 2014.
The five victims have been identified as Michael Zanera, 34; Giuseppe Sorvillo, 43; Saverio Giuseppe Lombardo, 52; Giuseppe Aversa, 49; and Kevin Laganà, 22. Reports said they all died immediately after the impact with the train.
Worst accidentsThe worst accident was the Quintinshill rail disaster in Scotland in 1915 with 226 dead and 246 injured. Second worst, and the worst in England, was the 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, which killed 112 people and injured 340.
1650. England – Whickham, County Durham. Two boys die when they are run over by a wagon on a wooden coal train way. While such tramway accidents are not generally listed as rail accidents (note the lack of accidents listed for the next 163 years) this is sometimes cited as the earliest-known railway accident.
Train derailments are quite common in the U.S. The Department of Transportations' Federal Railroad Administration has reported an average of 1,475 train derailments per year between 2005-2021. Despite the relatively high number of derailments, they rarely lead to disaster.
1830. 15 September – United Kingdom – William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported passenger train death. During the ceremonial opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, while standing on the track at Parkside, he is struck and fatally injured by the locomotive Rocket.
Return to FAQ page. What do I do if there's a train strike? Strikes on Italian trains are infrequent enough that you might travel through the country many times and never have to deal with one. It only takes one instance of having travel plans thwarted by an unexpected strike, however, to ruin a trip.
The Great Train Wreck of 1918. On July 9, 1918, two passenger trains collided head-on in Nashville, Tennessee. Today, it remains the worst railroad accident in United States history.
On 6 October 1866, brothers John and Simeon Reno staged what is generally believed to be the first train robbery in American history. Their take was $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.
Riding the Death RailwayAfter the war, much of the line was repaired and to this day is still used for local passenger services between Bangkok and the end of the line at Nam Tok.
Compared to other popular forms of travel, such as cars, ships, buses, and planes, trains are one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States.
Compare it to other major forms of transportation – with 0.04 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, train travel is much more dangerous than airplanes' 0.01 deaths per 100 million miles.